Contents/Summary

Summary

This dissertation is comprised of the musical composition "That Is Only A Mirror..." as well as this introductory paper that goes into a brief account of its thematic ideas and their compositional use. "That Is Only A Mirror..." is approximately 10 minutes in duration. It was composed for the New York-based new music group the Talea Ensemble and is scored for flute, oboe, Bb clarinet, Bb trumpet, trombone, percussion, piano, violin, viola, and cello. The piece is explores the question of what constitutes identity by inviting the comparison of nearly indistinguishable yet continually varied and recontextualized musical materials. Comparison and contextualization of simultaneous, sequential, and delayed placements of variously derived musical sound objects (i.e. musical materials) in time is the primary means of exploring this issue in the piece.